The revolutionary materials called metal–organic frameworks have taken chemistry by storm. Their highly porous structure makes them useful in venues from laboratory to factory, prompting scientists to create thousands of varieties. Now, a team has used computer simulations to design frameworks that skip the metal and are instead made entirely from organic salts1.
Salt-based frameworks could be cheaper to manufacture than their metal–organic counterparts and could have qualities that existing frameworks lack. The simulations have already yielded salt-based frameworks that can capture a pollutant produced in nuclear waste.
The research was published on 22 May in Nature.
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